The present invention relates to a centrifuge, and particularly to a centrifuge having a door that can be temporarily halted at a position between a closed state and a full-open state.
Centrifuges that use centrifugal force to separate samples are well known in the art. This type of centrifuge has a door that opens at a fixed angle and must be selected based on whether the door is designed to open at a large angle or at a small angle. If the door is designed to open at a large angle, it is difficult to reach the door when closing the same. Hence, these centrifuges are more difficult to operate. Centrifuges having doors that open to a smaller angle are inconvenient when performing maintenance operations, such as replacing the rotor or cleaning the interior of the centrifuge.
To overcome these problems, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-34724 discloses a centrifuge having a hinge for generating a fixed drag torque when opening and closing the door, and a gas spring for urging the door in the opening direction. The drag torque of the hinge and the urging force of the gas spring are balanced so as to halt the door at a desired position.